President hopes for more investments from Korea
Seoul, July 24
President Pratibha Patil today expressed hope that India would attract more investments from Korean and Mongolean companies as she embarked on a visit to the two countries aimed at strengthening mutual relations.
Beginning her week-long two-nation tour, the President also said that she would take up with the Korean leadership the issue of civil nuclear cooperation with India.

President Pratibha Patil being welcomed at Seoul Air base in South Korea on Sunday. — PTI

FIIs’ pre-results stock buying spree under scanner
New Delhi, July 24
Suspecting possible foul play by some foreign investors in the stock market, watchdog SEBI is probing a strange upsurge in their buying activities days before Indian companies announce their quarterly results.

Tax Advice
Savings interest can be declared on accrual or receipt basis
Q I have opened Savings Bank plus Account and Fixed Deposit Account with Bank of India. The FD receipts matured in June 2011 and others in December 2011. The bank has deducted TDS on interest accrued up to March 31, 2011. On my persistent request, the Bank has given me certified copy of my saving Bank Account for 2010-11, showing actual payment and interest credit in my Saving Bank A/c. Please advise, if I may give actual payment of interest on SB A/c in my annual I-T Return for 2011-12. I also submit a Newspaper cutting, if it may help.

San Francisco, July 24
Last week’s earnings from the giants of technology had one thing in common: they underscored yet again how consumers are increasingly shunning desktop PCs and going mobile.

Intel, which had argued that pessimistic expectations about the market were out of whack, reduced its 2011 PC forecast. Microsoft Windows sales, that reliable indicator of PC market strength, fell short of expectations for the third straight quarter.

Apple Inc, which single-handedly showed with its iPad that many consumers are more than happy with an unladen, light and mobile computer, obliterated all estimates by selling 9 million tablets.

“The desktop, at least for consumers, probably doesn’t have a great future. The iPad and similar tablets can deliver a lot of the functionality of a laptop,” said Tim Ghriskey of Solaris Asset Management.

Worldwide shipments of smartphones are already overtaking PCs, and by 2015, more than 300 million tablets will ship — not far behind 479 million PCs expected to be made.

To be sure, there'’s time left for PCs. Adoption and sale continue to grow rapidly in emerging markets and among corporate users.

But even there, increasingly powerful smartphones are entrenched and tablets are creeping in.

Shares of Apple reached a record this week and are up 21 per cent in 2011. Intel has gained 10 per cent, a bit better than the broader market, but Microsoft is down about 3 per cent. PC sales edged up just 2.3 per cent in the second quarter, according to tech research firm Gartner, well below earlier projections.

Intel and AMD are increasing their focus on processors suited for smaller devices. They’re pushing manufacturers to use their chips to build laptops that are in many ways touchscreen tablets.

The market for processors used in smartphones and tablets is about $6.7 bn this year, MKM Partners estimates.

Intel is speeding up plans to use its most cutting-edge technology to manufacture chips aimed a mobile devices, and Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini said this week the company would be "hyper-competitive" in getting its silicon into tablets running Microsoft’s upcoming version of Windows.— Reuters

Seoul, July 24
President Pratibha Patil today expressed hope that India would attract more investments from Korean and Mongolean companies as she embarked on a visit to the two countries aimed at strengthening mutual relations.

Beginning her week-long two-nation tour, the President also said that she would take up with the Korean leadership the issue of civil nuclear cooperation with India.

“Korean companies such as LG, Samsung and Hyundai are household names in India. They have done extremely well in our domestic market, and are now using India as a manufacturing base for exports to third countries. We look forward to receiving more Korean investment in our country,” she told the accompanying media on board her special aircraft.

"Economics is the foundation of the India-Korea relationship. We implemented a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement from January 2010. The results have been encouraging," she said.

Two-way trade with South Korea rose by approximately 40 per cent in 2010 and has reached the $17 billion mark. It is expected to touch $21 billion this year. — PTI

Chandigarh, July 24
India and China need to form a strategic alliance to attract business in each other’s country.

Penng Gang, Economic and Commercial Counselor, Chinese Embassy in India, while inviting Indian entrepreneurs to do business in China, during a seminar organised by CII here today. He said that while China was the ‘world factory’, India was the ‘world office’. He urged the governments to provide necessary preferential policies and create better investment environment for foreign investors, to attract more FDI. — TNS

New Delhi, July 24
Suspecting possible foul play by some foreign investors in the stock market, watchdog SEBI is probing a strange upsurge in their buying activities days before Indian companies announce their quarterly results.

Companies generally begin announcing their financial results after about a week of the end of every quarter and it is common for investors to base their investment decisions on these figures.

However, in a strange pattern noticed for the past few quarters, the Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) are embarking on an above-normal stock buying spree during days before the start of the corporate
earnings season.

This buying spree generally begins about 10 days before the earnings season and stops 2-3 days before the results start coming out.

The average quantum of stock-purchase activities in these days has been much more than the daily average for other parts of a quarter, leading to a case for suspicion, sources said.

There have been only 4-5 days during such periods in past one-and-a-half year when FIIs have been net sellers of stocks. — PTI

Tax Advice
Savings interest can be declared on accrual or receipt basis
by SC Vasudeva

Q I have opened Savings Bank plus Account and Fixed Deposit Account with Bank of India. The FD receipts matured in June 2011 and others in December 2011. The bank has deducted TDS on interest accrued up to March 31, 2011. On my persistent request, the Bank has given me certified copy of my saving Bank Account for 2010-11, showing actual payment and interest credit in my Saving Bank A/c. Please advise, if I may give actual payment of interest on SB A/c in my annual I-T Return for 2011-12. I also submit a Newspaper cutting, if it may help.

— Jagtar Singh

A Interest earned in your savings account as well as on FDs can be declared on accrual or receipt basis. This is permitted under Section 145 of the Act. However, once you opt for a method, it becomes difficult to change the manner in which such income is to be included for tax purposes. Facts in the query do not indicate this aspect of the matter. I suggest that you follow the accrual method to avoid the inclusion of entire interest amount in the year of receipt. The newspaper report enclosed with the query explains the procedure for deduction of tax at source by the banks. This clarification has no relevance to your query.

D-MAT trading

Q We are operating a joint D-MaT account with first name of my wife, second my son and third mine. For trading in shares we are investing the sale/purchase proceeds from a joint SB account. At the end of financial year, we calculate the total gain or loss in shares, divide it in equal three parts and show in our respective I-T returns. Is this procedure legally correct or flawed.

— RK Julka

A The taxability in respect of income from trading in shares would depend upon the source of investment i.e. deposits in joint savings bank account which have been utilised for such trading. The income from such trading should therefore be apportioned on the basis of the source of investment in shares purchased for trading.

M-cap for 8 cos in top ten rises
Mumbai: The market capitalisation (m-cap) of eight of the country's top-10 companies increased by Rs 23,027.56 crore in the week gone by with telecom major Bharti Airtel emerging as the top gainer. With a m-cap of Rs 1,56,059.08 crore, Bharti added Rs 6,968.44 crore to its kitty last week. It hiked mobile tariff rates by up to 20 per cent for pre-paid users in certain packages across several circles.— PTI

Mansa Print plans
Rs 40 cr investment
Chandigarh: Chandigarh-based Mansa Print and Publishers Ltd. has plans to set up a completely automatic corrugation plant and pressure equaliser (PE) tube plant, with a capital investment of Rs 40 crore this fiscal. Gopal Munjal, MD said that though the company was initially set up a backward integration strategy by parent company “Indswift”, it has diversified into paper-based stationery products. — TNS

SBI Life Q1 net rises 26%
New Delhi: SBI Life Insurance today reported a 26 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 144 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, over the corresponding period an year ago. The private sector insurance company had posted a net profit of Rs 114 crore in the April-June quarter previous fiscal. — PTI